Key Takeaways
- Apple quietly launched the M5 series MacBooks through newsletters and YouTube, without a big event.
- Customers who recently ordered M4 series MacBooks received automatic upgrades to M5 series at no extra cost.
- The upgrade strategy helps Apple reduce costly return rates from customers.
- The M5 offers up to a 20% performance increase over the M4, with a 30% faster GPU and a fourfold efficiency boost for AI tasks.
- M5 Pro and M5 Max models promise around a 30% overall performance enhancement, with improvements in ray tracing tasks of up to 35%.
Apple has just rolled out the M5 series of MacBooks, but they did it quietly. There wasn't a big event; instead, they used newsletters and a few short videos on their YouTube channel. Normally, people keep an eye on Apple's product launches, but some still end up buying the previous generation right before the new ones hit the market. Interestingly, Apple is providing free upgrades for those customers.
Customer Experiences on Reddit
According to several users on Reddit (1,2,3), after they ordered the M4 series MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, their orders were stuck in processing for some time before being cancelled. Later, those orders were switched to the M5 series processors with the same specifications, and importantly, no extra cost was added. These orders are currently in the pre-order stage, with shipping expected to start soon.
Apple's Strategy to Reduce Returns
Some users noted that Apple often takes this approach to prevent returns, which can be costly for the company. Shipping the item and then having to cover return costs can add up. It doesn't matter if the customer has other Apple products; the upgrade usually happens automatically.
Performance Improvements with M5
Apple boasts that the M5 offers up to a 20% boost in performance over the M4. The GPU is claimed to be 30% faster, while tasks that rely on AI are said to see a fourfold increase in efficiency. The M5 Pro and M5 Max also promise an overall performance enhancement of around 30%. For ray tracing tasks, there's a reported improvement of up to 35%, and the raw GPU performance is expected to surpass the previous generation by about 20%.
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